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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Fast and Furious gun program is now Obama's problem

Fast and Furious was Attorney General Eric holder's problem until today. He has repeatedly blockaded Congress from carrying out its Constitutional duty to oversee the executive branch. He has refused to provide documents subpoenaed by Congress. So a House committee today voted him to be in contempt of Congress. That term seems appropriate.

Holder was cornered. So Obama today joined him in the corner. Invoking executive privilege says the White House was involved.

Now the White House wants to get back to talking about creating jobs. Seattle Times

The White House reacted sharply to the committee action. "Instead of creating jobs or strengthening the middle-class, congressional Republicans are spending their time on a politically motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition," Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said.

I agree, Obama, let's talk about jobs - how you promised to keep unemployment below 8 per cent. Would you really join Holder in contempt of Congress to get the discussion off your record on THE big issue?

AP finally gets to the heart of the matter many paragraphs down. The AP reporter says the problem opened up after DOJ made false statements.

However, because Justice initially told the committee falsely the operation did not use a risky investigative technique known as gun-walking, the panel has turned its attention from the details of the operation and is now seeking documents that would show how the department headquarters responded to the committee's investigation.

In Fast and Furious, agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona abandoned the agency's usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased. Instead, the goal of gun-walking was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks.